A review by thebooksatchel
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

lighthearted

4.0

Absolutely cozy and heart warming. If you loved Legends and lattes, you will adore Bookshops and Bonedust. Here we see a younger, bloodthirsty orc Viv who has injured her leg on a mission and is trying to heal the wound in the sleepy town of Murk. Unexpected friendship, sleepishly sheepishly cozy setting, a summer fling, baked goods  ("she caught a whiff of baking in the breeze, cutting through the pungent odors of brine and seaweed", owned by a dwarf, Sea-Song bakery), gnomes, making wrong choices. It is GREAT! Also the highlight is a run down bookshop Thistleburr Booksellers with "chaotic piles of books, charts and miscellanous junk" (and smelling like mildew and carpets that need burning) filled with surprises. The friendship between the bookshop owner and Viv is heartwarming. I loved how the owner selects a book and gives to Viv, how Viv (who def didn't dream of reading through her rest days) finds out what she enjoys in books and also the 'story beyond the story', the book discussions, marketing tricks to attract more customers (I am intrigued by all the blind date with a book descriptions!). I loved the passages on painting, revamping the bookstore, taking stock of the collection, a bookish event by a famous author. Everything, even minor details, fills you up with warmth—take the example of a surgeon who visits the bookstore and "When the surgeon finally departed, he had three bundles under his arms and a bun in his teeth" or the smell of bread "still warm—moist and crumbly with a hint of sourdough tang or baked goods that "glisten on brown paper"

Read if you enjoy :
-COZY max books perfect for autumn and the colder seasons. Or really, any time of the year when you need a lift me up.
-Second hand books and lovely, quaint bookshops
-You love the smell of baked good.

<i>Thanks to Tor for an ARC. All opinions my own</i>